RIP Don Coryell

bobby wade

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/bryan-burwell/article_0649538d-1bb0-5bbe-93bf-d4983b3d9633.html


Don Coryell put the 'air' in pro football

The first time I saw Don Coryell's offense, I honestly didn't want to like it. It was the mid-1970s and I was a diehard Washington Redskins fan, and Coryell's high-octane offense was on display at RFK Stadium in Washington.

I didn't want to like it, but I couldn't help but be mesmerized. Terry Metcalf, a frightening multidimensional running back, was scooting all over the place, and a chunky quarterback named Jim Hart kept finding so many creative ways to poke holes in the Redskins' defense. And for the first time in my young memory, these football Cardinals were suddenly dangerous.

And thrilling, and fun and absolutely irresistible.

As a high school receiver, I was intrigued by what I was witnessing. So I wanted to know more. Who exactly was responsible for this wonderful brand of football? I was about to learn that the rumpled man on the sidelines with the long sideburns, the ever-present scowl and an inventive football mind was an eccentric offensive genius named Don Coryell.

Don Coryell died Thursday night at the age of 85, and the game of football lost one of its finest and boldest characters.

A lot of people who don't know any better credit the late Bill Walsh for being the father of modern offensive football in the NFL. A lot of people would be wrong for thinking that. The father of modern NFL offense was Sid Gilman, but Walsh and Coryell would become his most imaginative disciples.

While Walsh was a practitioner of the West Coast offensive style that favored gaining yardage in more subtle slices, Coryell favored a more swashbuckling aggression that would evolve into so many other versions of "Air Coryell," including a breathless concept in St. Louis two decades later called "The Greatest Show on Turf."

"So many offenses that are being run today are variations of ‘Air Coryell,' " NFL Hall of Famer and former University of Missouri tight end Kellen Winslow told reporters in 2008. "They call it the West Coast offense because San Francisco won Super Bowls with it, but it was a variation of what we did in San Diego. Joe Gibbs' itty-bitty receivers on the outside and two tight ends in the middle (with the Redskins), that's a variation of Coryell's offense in San Diego. It's just a personnel change, but it's the same thing. When the Rams won their Super Bowl, it was the same offense, same terminology."

Unfortunately for Coryell, he never won a Super Bowl or collected any NFC or AFC championships during his brilliant pro coaching career, though those Cardinals and Chargers won their share of division titles and provided us with some of the NFL's more entertaining offensive moments. That doesn't mean that Coryell's offense didn't earn its place in Super Bowl history. Gibbs' Redskins were winning Super Bowls thanks to a variation of the Coryell attack. When the Dallas Cowboys were dominating in the 1990s, it was another Coryell disciple, Norv Turner, who crafted the X's and O's that made Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin and Emmitt Smith shine.

Coryell's NFL legacy came full circle to St. Louis when the Rams became The Greatest Show on Turf. It was Mike Martz who would act as the embodiment of Coryell, fearlessly pushing the offensive envelope to its limits with his Max Q philosophies.

If you ever saw Coryell's offense up close - particularly in those spectacular days in San Diego when the rest of the league was still trying to emerge from its smash-mouth roots - you had to know that "Air" Coryell was on to something special.

When he moved on to San Diego in 1978, Coryell kept on collecting a diverse group of offensive weapons and finding more imaginative ways to use them. He had big backs (Chuck Muncie) and scat backs (James Brooks and Lionel James), he had swift receivers (Charlie Joiner, John Jefferson, Wes Chandler) and superb tight ends (Winslow), and the perfect quarterback (Dan Fouts) to dish and distribute to all of them.

I used to cover the NFL as a beat writer and I remember how much fun it was to travel to San Diego during training camp to witness his offense. What I saw at the Chargers' practices was something I'd see again years later with Martz at the Rams' helm, and Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk, Torry Holt and Isaac Bruce eagerly adopting the push-the-envelope mentality with a maniacal attention to detail and the insistence that the game be played at warp speed.

Proper credit to his coaching legacy came much too slowly for Coryell, as his players and coaching protégés continue to gain entrance into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, while his name remains outside.

"Coach Coryell deserves to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and it's a shame that he is not," Winslow said awhile ago. "For Don Coryell to not be in the Hall of Fame is a lack of knowledge of the voters. That's the nicest way that I can put that. A lack of understanding of the legacy of the game. He deserves to be there just as much as anybody else, any other coach who is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame."

What a shame that Coryell couldn't find his way into the Hall of Fame while he was still alive. Now that he is gone, hopefully the climate will change in the voting process and the original air-attack genius will gain entrance into that celebrated hall with all the other coaching geniuses who have made this game so special.

ReacherCreature

RIP.

mikemac

RIP "Air" Coryell

A true innovator and before his time.